Is it lack of education? A bizarrely different culture? Why is it that some people in other countries seem to be so completely… well, stupid?
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) – Oluchi Azubogu took no chances after receiving an ominous text message stirring fear in Nigeria.
The message warned that she would die if she took calls from two listed phone numbers. “I switched off my mobile phone and took no calls at all,” the 22-year-old university student said. Quickly she alerted her parents and six friends.
The text-message rumour has been spreading this week through Africa’s most populous country: “Beware! You’ll die if you take a call from any of these phone numbers: 0802 311 1999 or 0802 222 5999.”
Telecom firm VMobile insisted Thursday the messages are merely a hoax, stressing that only one of the alleged “killer numbers” even exists. The other is fictitious.
“This is an absolute hoax and should be treated as such,” VMobile spokesman Emeka Opara said in a statement.
Then, in Malawi, men are claiming to have AIDS:
AIDS may be an undesirable disease in America, but many rural African men say they’re infected even if they aren’t, thinking it speaks well of their masculinity and sexual prowess, according to a new study.
Remember a little while back when it was reported that men were having sex with underage girls, believing it would cure them of HIV infection?
Cripes.
